Thursday, 1 May 2014

Lightning Bolt by Barry Kanaiaupuni

This is a BK Bolt I got recently in a board swap. The board has been over here in the UK since the 80s. It was brought back by a guy who was on holiday on the North Shore , and purchased from a 2nd hand rack , probably for not much money . It was obviously well used and had some North Shore poundings including a deep fin cut in the left hand rail .
Ever since I watched Freeride (about 40 times) I have quite fancied having a bolt , but never wanted to pay the prices or the shipping from the US, so was lucky to get this one. After restoration it should be much improved . Dims are 6'8 x 19 ; BK was famous for riding super narrow boards ( as narrow as 17 inches) at Sunset from the late 60s through the 70s .If Lopez was Mr Pipe, BK was Mr Sunset , and his Bolts are pretty rare and sought after. This one has an unusual brown tint on the deck, red pinline , white tinted rails and bottom and a lovely glassed in fin . Date for the board must be around 1974 ? since it has an early leash plug and glass in fin rather than finbox. It is signed by Barry by the logo and has a copyright c below the logo (this may be because other board companies were copying the bolt logo and cashing in on Bolt's success.)